How To Use Rabbit Poop Fertilizer To Make Your Vegetables Thrive And Prosper

Let’s admit it; the rabbits are adorable. With those fluffy tails, wiggly noses, they are children’s favorite animals. In this text, however, they will become your favorite animals as well. Surely, rabbits can wreak havoc among your vegetables if left unattended, but fertilizer made from their poop is one of the best ones to be used in the garden.

To show you how to use rabbit poop fertilizer, I’ve made this text, so if you didn’t have the chance to try it out, the time is now.

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How To Use Rabbit Poop Fertilizer To Make Your Vegetables Thrive And Prosper

Why Even Bother With This Fertilizer?

Besides being rich in nitrogen, rabbit poop has one significant advantage over other types of manure (chickens, I’m talking about you). While I was making my list of 15 liquid fertilizer recipes, I had to cope with one problem.

The smell is simply put, awful. I had to wear a bandana over my mouth, that’s how bad it was. With rabbits, there are no such problems. Their droppings are almost odorless, and being solid makes them convenient to use.

The nutrient values of this fertilizer may vary, especially if the diet of rabbits is different, and also the manufacturers may create the various formula. In any case, NPK should be around 2.4:1.4:0.6. Traces of sulfur, calcium, and magnesium can also be contained.

One of the essential factors to opt for this fertilizer is the matter of money. It may seem trivial that you can spare on fertilizer, but what if I tell you that a pair of rabbits can produce about a ton of fertilizer a year? If you think in the long run, that rabbit is definitely rentable.

Also, if you have rabbits in your yard, this is a natural approach to how to use everything at your disposal, and to close the natural circle. The last, but not least, one of the reasons to try this fertilizer, is to see if the progress of your plants will be more noticeable.

Where Could I Find It?

As I said, if you have rabbits, they will be your source of fertilizer. If not, there are several ways to find droppings of these little carrot-nibblers.

Because of their popularity, rabbit poop fertilizer is gaining popularity recently, so don’t be surprised if you find it in your Garden Center, where you are usually buying seeds and other stuff. You can even buy it online if you are living in a small town. They are coming in vacuumed bags, properly sealed, so there are no reasons to worry about messy mail.

In the end, if none of these two works, you can always ask around. I’m sure that there will be at least one neighbor or relative who has rabbits, so ask him to give you some droppings.

Which Tools Will Be Needed?

This is the part where things are getting a little bit complicated. There are several ways in which rabbit poop fertilizer can be distributed, and depending on which you choose, it may require a lot of tools or nothing. In general, plan that you will need gloves, a shovel, and a bucket for mixing. Just to be sure, keep an old pantyhose close at hand, in case that you decide to make manure tea. Also, if you have a compost tumbler, you can use it. If not, this is a great chance to buy one.

However, you will undoubtedly need a field test kit. These are great for measuring NPK index since you wish to be sure how much nutrients your end product contains. Luckily, rabbit poop fertilizer won’t burn your plants, since it is very mild, but still, NPK index must be checked. In any case, these are the ways you can take into consideration when using rabbit poop as fertilizer.

Raw Material

The easiest way to use this fertilizer is to apply it directly. But, since it needs microorganisms to decompose it, it has to be contained in the soil. Luckily, there is an easy way to do so.

Supposing that you have rabbits in your yard. And you wish to plant some cabbage, but there are no fertilizers which can help you at this particular moment. If you are growing cabbage from seed, there is a moment when you will transfer plants to the garden. After making holes for seedlings, take a couple of droppings and put them into the hole. Put the seedling and cover with soil. This will provide enough nitrogen for starting.

This approach doesn’t require additional equipment, so it is convenient for every gardener.

Working It In

The other approach requires just a hoe or shovel. Take fresh droppings and sprinkle it over the area you wish to enrich. Now, by using a shovel, turn the top layer of the soil. This is beneficial regarding breaking the ground into smaller particles, and better integration of nutrients.

Also, this approach is excellent for aeration of the soil. By turning the soil once in every couple of days will improve the flow of the air within. Microorganisms will thrive, and they are the way of binding the nitrogen with the roots. On the other hand, this method of applying the fertilizer will require some more time, so at least a month of preparation will be needed.

Manure Tea

In case that you wish excellent manure tea, here is one. This approach will provide your plants with nutrients, and water them along the way. Also, this fertilizer is the mildest, so the most tender vegetables can be treated with it, without worrying.

Take that pantyhose which I have mentioned, and put about two cups of rabbit droppings inside. Fill the 5-gallon bucket with water and submerge the pantyhose in it. I’ve left it for three days in a sunny spot, with moving the droppings through the water once a day. After said time, I got awesome manure tea which I could use straight away.

Tumbler To The Rescue!

If you are keen on making compost, the procedure is known to you. Take organic waste, put it inside, and leave it in a sunny spot for “cooking” with occasional tumbling. After a while, you will get beautiful and rich compost which can be used both for containers and for the garden, although for the latter a much more is required to be made.

But to fully exploit the benefits of rabbit poop, throw in some of it into the mix. Other ingredients can include straw, grass clippings, leaves, and even crushed egg shells, to increase the level of calcium. This is the case where that test kit will be required. Since there are a lot of ingredients, and all of them vary regarding nutrients, there is no way to predict the results. As long as it stays in the range of what you wish to make, it is great.

Worm Castings

The most potent and one of the most challenging ways to use rabbit poop is to let the worms do the dirty work (pun intended). But, it can’t be used as-is; some preparation must be done.

Rabbit poop will often contain either traces or actual ammonia, and that is the problem. Urine is the richest in this element, so I wanted to take it out of the equation, because it is poisonous to worms, and will kill them rather fast. Since I can’t hand-pick and wash every dropping, I’ve used that which remained after making manure tea. It is mild, stripped of the majority of nutrients and ammonia as well.

With these remains and other things which are used to make worm castings, all that was left was to check on how those red guys are doing. After they did their magic, I could use it further. However, since worms are improving the quality and level of nutrients, another measuring was taken, to check the NPK index.

A Word Of Advice

Although rabbit poop is nearly perfect fertilizer, there are still some things you must keep in mind, to avoid adverse situations. Here are some of those tips.

Never apply fertilizer to leaves, only to the soil

Always wash vegetables thoroughly if you have applied fertilizers which are from animals

Keep track about rabbits, if few caught a disease, do not use this fertilizer

If you still wish to use it, consider purchasing a bag of pellets; those are tested for diseases

Conclusion

So, there it is. Learning how to use rabbit poop fertilizer was not so difficult, wasn’t it? I hope that you have found the information you were looking for and that your garden will be enriched with these golden (figurate speaking) nuggets of greatness.

As always, feel free to leave a comment, opinion or suggestion in the comment section below.

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